Ling

I would have scooped out the custard and tart crust pieces and arranged the desserts in parfait glasses. Bit of hard sauce or bourbon-laced whipped cream, a sliver of candied orange zest, and maybe a bit of homemade cranberry sauce for colour and you've got a great Christmas dessert! Thanks for the link...I love English puddings.

For the record, I have no problem with people choosing not to consume CSB, whether it is approved as sustainable by the MSC or not. If they want to serve me up an attitude-and-a-half when I say I made the decision to consume it, THEN I have a problem with it. I welcome comments/explanations about why an individual thinks MSC-approved CSB is still a problem. If I didn't, I wouldn't have read Andrew's article on Waiterforum today, and thought it informative and enlightening. As I've already posted on Waiterforum, we checked with a few people whom we thought were knowledgable about the issue before purchasing the fish, and they said MSC-approved CSB was OK. It wasn't until I read Andrew's piece that I saw how sustainable fisheries could still indirectly harm Chilean sea bass stocks that I decided it wasn't a big deal if I never ate it again in the future. And Sam, give me another 10-15 years in this cold, cruel world and perhaps I'll turn out as bitter, cynical, and thick-skinned as you.

Sounds like Chen's is the place to check out...the xlb at The Place look very good, btw. Unfortunately, my former favourite xlb from Top Shanghai were rather lackluster on my last visit, but here are some other pictures from dinner. fish fragrant pork cold pork appetizer Lee's wine sauce chicken dry-fried green beans

Stunning photos (and you are a wonderful cook!) I laughed when you said the avatar is a mental picture of the voice you hear when you read your own writing. Don't take it the wrong way, but I can kinda see it too...

Is it indeed pork shoulder? That's what I thought too, until Henry's mom and my parents all insisted it was from a part of the upper thigh. I know, of course, that "ti pang" is the name of the pig part--do you know whether it's shoulder or thigh? I plan on making this dish for some guests next week. Thanks.

I made the savoury corn muffins a few days ago. I did add an extra 1.5 tsp cayenne powder and doubled the amount of japaleno as per the request of chilli-lovin' boyfriend. I also replaced the 8 tbsp of melted butter for oil instead, to make a moister muffin. He thought they were the tastiest muffins ever. I couldn't stop eating them as well, even though my tongue was burning!

Having only lived in Vancouver and (now) Seattle, I must say Seattlites have it pretty good when it comes to cheap eats! There are no good sandwiches in Vancouver because there is no good bread to begin with. The produce seems to be better quality down here too. (BTW, Vancouver doesn't have good pizza either. The only good "cheap" option, IMO, for lunch/dinner is Chinese.) OK, so maybe Seattle doesn't compare with Asia for tasty and inexpensive food...but it's not that bad here at all! BTW, we were driving around after lunch at Salumi today and I saw a tofu shop with a Vietnamese-sounding name...I'm sorry I can't give any more clues because I just caught a glimpse of it and remembered you mentioning tofu in this thread. But perhaps they have fresher (soft) tofu there for sale? ETA: Sorry, I re-read your initial post and Than Son might have been the tofu shop you mentioned. As for tomatoes, I can easily find heirlooms at Pike Place all through the summer/early fall (though they were not as good as Milan's heirloom tomatoes from BC), and U-District farmer's market even had a big selection of them 2 weekends ago! Some smaller pasta plates can be found at Salumi...we have the gnocchi on Tuesdays, and today Gina fed us a selection of items, including a very nice spinach lasagna. Only $7-8 bucks, I think. And I actually like the pizza at Whole Foods for a quick lunch option...all their pizzas are hot and fresh out of the oven, and only $3-3.50 a slice. Smaller pastries can be found at Cafe Besalu and Belle Epicurean, my two favourite bakeries for croissants.

So hungry...can't....stop....eaaaating....

When we're too lazy to make lunch, we get a couple slices of pizza and the curried chicken salad from the deli.

It's pork...I think the meat comes from the upper part of the thigh. Braised for several hours until the fat and meat is really soft.

One of the best things I ate this week--(and it's been a VERY good week )--huai go ti pang at Top Shanghai. (Warning--this has an inch thick layer of soft fat around the meat, and the fat's delicious. Not for dieters.)

I hope your husband is feeling better. I really enjoyed a look at that Southern party! The quiche rectangles look especially tempting.

I love sweet potatoes. I like 'em best pureed with cream, butter, a bit of cinnamon, and salt and pepper. No additional sugar. I haven't had the sweet potato and marshmallow casserole, but it sounds like a good dessert! I am hoping someone will bring one tomorrow to our potluck feast tomorrow. I'd have a nice heaping of it, after my turkey dinner. (ETA: I made a roasted sweet potato cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and brandy caramel for tomorrow's dessert as well, so maybe I'll be lucky enough to eat two sweet potato desserts.)

Thanks for all your help--I'll go with the fatback and the panade.

A glimpse into Miss Rachel's life and a southern Thanksgiving to boot! Who could ask for more.

For one of the turkeys we're doing for Thanksgiving, I've decided to bone it out entirely and use part of the meat as the forcemeat. (BTW--should I stuff the dark meat, or puree the dark meat and roll up the breast? I think the latter option would give a neater presentation, but I am leaning towards using the breast as the stuffing as the dark meat is moister and doesn't necessarily need the cream/butter/animal fat that goes into the forcemeat. Opinions?) Madeleine Kauman suggests using something like: 2 pounds of meat 3/4 pounds fatback 5 eggs 2-3 tsp. salt 1 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 tsp. Quatre-Epices However, I often see chefs making forcemeat in the food processor by grinding the meat and adding heavy cream, eggs, seasoning, and sometimes breadcrumbs (or bread soaked in milk). Which should I use--cream, or fatback? If I use fatback, should I also use breadcrumbs? I also plan on adding some fortified wine or spirits to the forcemeat...is sherry the best choice?

You're right. I have that, and some Darigold that I got elsewhere. I had some fried duck eggs for dinner. Ahhh...deliciousness.

Just wonderful, Percy. Thank-you so much for the pictures and the write-up. The eggplant risotto and the desserts at Le Cinq look perfect.

^I think thicker brownies as well. I think next time I'll make 1.5 times the recipe and bake it in the same 8x8 pan. I forgot to note that I used 5 oz. of chopped bittersweet instead of 4, and reduced the sugar by 2 tbsp. Also, I didn't have enough nuts, so I only used about 1/2 cup.

^Yes...and Thanksgiving is the best food holiday of the year!

Have any of you tried the Katherine Hepburn brownies yet? They are absolutely fantastic--I love the bit of coffee and cinnamon in there. I would post a picture but I couldn't restrain myself from eating too much batter, and consequently the bit of batter I had left resulted in a very thin pan of brownies. I can see myself making these reguarly, after I try out the other brownie recipes. If they are as good as the Katherine Hepburn ones, I might need to buy elastic-waist pants...

Yum...delicious photos, especially the chicken poutine and the brioche sticks with the lobster bisque.

pumpkin cheesecake, gingersnap crust, caramel, candied pumpkin seeds some sort of pie...probably bourbon pecan, or apple some sort of chocolate tart Generally pretty predictable stuff--I don't think the holidays are really a time to experiment since we have so many guests coming over for dinner, and I think most people have a set idea on what Thanksgiving dinner should be like.

Is that the Darigold brand? I have that in my fridge right now. That seems to be what the restaurants use too. I had a good time at the U-District market today and came away with some duck eggs, some farm fresh chicken eggs, and an almond croissant from Belle Epicurean for breakfast. Their plain croissant was also very good. Also sampled a ton of different organic apples from the different vendors, though I can't say I was very impressed with them. Some were mealy, and most were rather thin in flavour and kind of flat tasting...even the organic Honeycrisps were not nearly as good as the regular ones I get at Pike Place. The tastiest sample was the French prune from Anderson Farms. And FYI--they still have heirloom tomatoes, including Brandywine.

Glad you liked them! I made chai truffles yesterday. Probably because most home cooks don't have invert sugar in their cupboard. (BTW, I apologize in advance but I can't divulge the real recipe.) I think Bon Appetit was trying to make the recipe appear more accessible, and taste was a secondary factor.